70
As its English-language title indicates, Philipp Stoelzl's yarn is clearly modeled on "Shakespeare in Love." But though it lacks that film's delirious wordplay, this German cousin is well plotted and impressively mounted.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Mr. Fehling, tumbling from puppy dog eagerness into weepy, inky self-pity, never quite rises to the requirements of the role, which may be hopelessly incoherent in any case.
38
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
What unfolds is a predictably anguished story of true love thwarted by material circumstances, or in the terms dictated by the film, rationality triumphing over romance.
40
Cool, it's a rom-com featuring the man who'd influence Romanticism.
50
Wall Street Journal by John Anderson
Doesn't the reigning genius of the German language deserve his own "Shakespeare in Love"? Sure. But as Goethe scampers about Leipzig, comically failing his doctoral exam, spilling his books and looking bemused, young Johann might as well be auditioning for his own Disney Channel program.
58
Whatever its basis in fact, there's nothing to Young Goethe In Love's story that dozens of other films haven't done before, and better. But Fehling keeps his Goethe just on the right side of obnoxious, and Stein invests a lot of character and gawky charm into what easily could have been just "the girl."
50
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
And yet for all of its obtuse choices, there's still something commendable, if daffy, about trying to turn the high holy father of German literature into a rock star.
42
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Turns one of the greatest geniuses of German literature into a love-struck rapscallion.
50
Young Goethe looks great, and the cast is appealing. But the story is riddled with clichés and fabrications.